Close to the Edge
by LyricsArePoetry
Summary: AU: Annie's been turned into a vampire by the abusive Owen. Can a ghost from the war, Mitchell, get her away from him?


"Annie!"

The newly formed vampire jumped. As a human she had been in a bad place, close to giving up on everything, as a vampire she didn't feel as though she was in any sort of a better place. Her creator, Owen, appeared young and gorgeous, the sort of man any girl would feel lucky to be with. Annie knew she should be grateful to him for choosing to save her, for wanting to be her. Despite the fact that she was plain, with her curly brown hair and big brown eyes, she was nothing special. She should be grateful but the truth was she hadn't wanted saving.

"Annie, if I have to call one more time…"

The threat didn't need speaking; Annie knew perfectly well what Owen was capable of. She had heard the stories and she had been victim to Owen's punishments. A bit of her thought that it would be better to have died as a human than to have to live for an eternity like this. She didn't dare disobey this time, she walked over to Owen. Once she reached him, she bowed her head politely.

"That's better," his voice became softer. "You need to learn to behave, darling."

"Sorry, sir," Annie said, softly.

Owen took her chin gently, lifting it to make her face him, "I saved you and now I do nothing but protect you, it is only fair that you would serve me in return, do you not think?"

Annie nodded, "Yes sir."

She hated Owen. She hated him with every fibre of her being. She had considered so many times raising a stake and sticking it into his heart but she knew she didn't have the nerve to go through with it and it wouldn't be worth the punishment at the end of it when she failed. But the worst part was that she knew she needed Owen. She knew that if it wasn't for him she would be lost in the bloodlust, unable to control it, unable to think straight, unable to deal with being a vampire. Owen had known exactly what to do; he got a vulnerable young girl and turned her into his puppet. He owned her completely and there was nothing she could do about it.

"Good girl," Owen said mockingly. Then came the test, "Now give me a kiss." Annie's face instantly fell from a neutral expression to one of disgust and horror. "There is no need to look like that," Owen said bitterly. He moved his hand from her chin and slapped her hard across the cheek, clearly enjoying the yelp of pain from her. "I'm warning you, Annie," all the sweetness that had been in his voice was well and truly lost, now he wasn't trying to disguise it, now he was showing his true colours. "You learn to behave or I will fucking well leave you in a church."

Annie could feel the colour drain out of her at that threat. One time Owen had just taken her to the doorway of a church and she had been able to feel the pain. They were soulless, evil creatures and a church was a place of religion, a place of good. Whether or not the good the church believed in was real didn't matter and Annie knew it wasn't her place to comment on that, the belief was in the place, the place held the goodness of the religion, the purity of it. And it stung. To actually be in a church would be agony. It had tingled to be so close to it, it had felt wrong, like her body was trying to convince her to walk away. She could hardly bare to think about how much worse it would be to actually be in the building.

Owen smirked, "Now…" he said, looking at her pointedly.

Annie obeyed. The threat of the church hanging over her. She leant up gently, closing her eyes, trying to imagine it was someone else, anyone else, as she pressed her lips to Owen's. She imagined an old friend from school, a high school crush. But it didn't work, when she tried to pull away after a quick peck, Owen kept her there, forcing her mouth open and invading it with his tongue, running it over her own. She was uncomfortable with it but she forced herself not to struggle, not to try and pull away.

Owen was smiling when he eventually pulled away from the kiss. "You belong to me, Annie Sawyer, don't you ever forget that."

And she was certain she wouldn't be able to. He control practically her every move. Her dictated when she could drink and how much. He treated her like a servant at best, like property that had no real feelings of her own. Annie never truly became numb to it, she never stopped wish that she could get away from it, never stop wishing that she could die just so she wouldn't be living like this.

It was when she was out on the kill once that things changed. It was late evening, the sky black and scattered with stars that she couldn't help but noticed. She remembered back to when she saw the stars and associated then with freedom, associated them with being able to make things better. That wasn't possible anymore. Now she was a soulless monster controlled by one even worse. She had slammed a man considerably bigger than her against the wall (Owen wasn't watching, she knew, he had got to the stage of trusting her enough to let her get her own blood) and was about to dig her fangs into his neck when she heard it.

"You don't have to do that."

The voice was calm, quiet and yet firm. There was no hint of a threat in it. It was gentle and unafraid. It wasn't a vampire; she would've been able to sense if it was, but it wasn't human either, she would've been able to smell the blood. Whatever it was, it had spoken with an almost old-fashioned hint to his tone. It had unnerved her, she hesitated, and keeping her hand at her victim's throat turned to the voice. He had long black hair, a friendly face, something about it suggested he was actually friendly unlike Owen. He was wearing a World War Two style uniform, it didn't look like a replica yet it didn't look old enough to be an original.

"You're a ghost…" She commented, quietly.

He smiled, "Yes, I am," he agreed. "And you're a vampire. I've been watching you."

Annie's eyes widened. She wanted to comment on this, why would he watch her? Did he know Owen? Was this a test? No. Owen wouldn't do something like this, it wasn't his style.

"My name's Mitchell," he offered his hand politely.

Annie just looked at it, one hand still on the victim, who was now unconscious from her grip, the other just loose. She wasn't sure what to say, what to do.

"Let me help you, Annie," Mitchell said, calmly.

Annie dropped her victim and looked at Mitchell properly. She didn't bother asking how he knew her name, he had already said he had been watching her. She wasn't sure what to say but she knew she needed to say something. "How?" she said, eventually. Her voice was almost silent, hope and disbelief mixed in her tone.

"I can help you break away from Owen," Mitchell said, calmly. "Get him out of the picture, get you clean. Being a vampire isn't a sentence to being like this."

"How?" Annie repeated. She shook her head, trying to gather her thoughts. "I mean, how are you going to get Owen out of the picture? He won't just go. The only way he would leave me would be…"

Mitchell nodded. "Between us, we can kill him."

Annie shook her head quickly, fear overtaking her again. "No. No! I can't_kill _him. I need him. I…" she was confused. Killing Owen was everything she wanted to do and yet, surely it couldn't be? She didn't need him after all, she relied on him, he did save her after all, he did always protect her.

Mitchell took her hand, it was gently and soft. It felt different. Annie had never touched a ghost before. It was almost like it wasn't quite real and yet it was. "Annie, listen to me, you do not need him."

Annie swallowed, looking between their entwined hands and Mitchell himself. How could a ghost and a mess of a new born Vampire kill one who knew the tricks of the trade so to speak? When she didn't reply, Mitchell spoke again. "It's not going to be easy. It's going to be hard all round," he said, honestly and not too reassuringly. "But it'll be worth it in the end."

Annie nodded. She wanted this. She knew she did, deep down, freedom from Owen was all she wanted, to be away from him however it happened. But she wasn't sure she had the strength needed for this. This was the actually taking of a life. And of course she had killed many a human for the blood, but that was different, that was the food chain. This would be taken one of their own. That wasn't right was it? But Owen was a monster, surely he had whatever was coming to him. "I… I can't…" She hated how weak and pathetic she sounded. She hated how scared she was, she hated everything that Owen had done to her. The idea of putting a stake in him though. It both excited and terrified her.

"Yes, you can," Mitchell insisted. His voice never altered. He was never threatening, never trying to scare her into doing what he was saying. He was different. He was trying to help. He was the thing she desperately needed. He - for whatever reason and in all honesty she didn't care - wanted to make things better for her. Surely it would only be right to accept it.

"Wh- What would I have to do?" She asked, carefully. She pulled her hand away from his gently.

"For now, nothing," Mitchell said. "You need to go back, act as you would after making a kill, act perfectly natural. And whenever you're sent out to make a kill, I'll find you," there was a hint of promise in his voice. "I'll put together a plan, and Owen will be dead within a couple of weeks."

Annie nodded, shakily. "All right," she agreed, wondering what the hell she was getting herself into. But she realised that it was far too late to think that. She had been thrown into this world without consent in the first place, anything else that was added to it was really just part of the course. It wasn't as simple as that though of course. There was all the confusion, all the pain, all the thoughts and feelings that she couldn't make any sort of sense of.

"Great," Mitchell flashed her a winning smile and Annie couldn't help but give him a nervous smile back. "Stay strong, Annie," he told her, before disappearing off.

—

Annie saw him again a few days later. She was pale and weak from the lack of blood. She had been desperately trying to act normal but as her physical strength deteriorated she struggled to please Owen as well, leading to many minor punishments. He didn't do anything as serious as force her into a church, but he did take the Cross of a Christian's necklace and force against her arm. She had been left with a cross shaped burn on her forearm and a level of anger that made her somewhat more determined to destroy him. She knew she was going to be too weak to though, if this continued. No matter what Mitchell said, she wasn't going to be able to not kill. She needed to, she needed the blood, she needed the strength, she was going to be too much of a wreck if she didn't drink.

Mitchell came prepared though. He had a bag of blood with him, claiming to have taken it from the local hospital. In all honesty Annie didn't care where it was from as long as it tasted good. At the first taste she almost spat it out. It wasn't /fresh/. She forced herself to drink it down though, she needed it, and after a quick moment the fact that it wasn't fresh made no difference. She felt better almost instantly after drinking it.

"This won't work forever," Mitchell said, "Once Owen is out of the picture we'll work towards getting you off of it completely. But to expect you to go cold turkey while still with him, I accept, was a stupid idea. My apologies."

Annie shook her head, "It's fine." She knew the punishment she had undergone was likely to have happened at some point anywhere, she, in no way, blamed Mitchell for it. In all honesty she was still shocked that Mitchell was here and trying to help her.

"We're going to kill him," Mitchell told her, bringing the course of conversation swiftly on track. "We're going to turn him into nothing but dust on the ground. We're going to watch as he burns, as he screams in pain, as he is destroyed."

Mitchell's tone as well as his words suggested a personal reasoning behind this. Annie didn't question though, it was none of her business, and if Mitchell had meant what he said about helping her go clean afterwards, then there would be plenty of time to find out, if he wanted to tell. "I don't think I can do it."

"Of course you don't think you can," Mitchell said. His tone wasn't mocking, he was genuine, he understood. "But that doesn't mean you can't. And in all honesty, if you can't, that's not a bad thing," he smiled reassuringly at her. "If you can't do it, I can do it myself. I just need to know you're with me on this and not going to be trying to stop me."

Annie shook her head, "Of course I won't try and stop you," she insisted quickly, horrified at the thought. Subconsciously, her hand went over her burn, even though the sleeve was covering it. The burn was just one of many reasons that she wanted Owen out of the way. For the first time in a long time, she felt that maybe she could do something for herself. That she didn't have to be ruled and controlled, and maybe that wouldn't be better. As a human she hadn't been controlled but she had still been at her wits end. But at least she would know one way of the other if it was better or not. At least it would be in her control, how it should be.

"Thank you," Mitchell said.

Annie was shocked, she felt like she should be the one thanking him now the other way around. He was the one who was saving her, truly saving her, not the mocking type of salvation Owen tried to force her to believe he had given her. He was the one who was making her feel like she didn't have to just give in and accept her fate. He was the one making things better. And yet, it was obvious that this was important to him as well. It meant a lot to him, and he needed her help. Maybe the truth was they needed each other. A vampire and a ghost. Annie could remember back just a couple of months when she was sceptical, when she didn't believe in the paranormal or the supernatural. When she thought humans were all there was in the world. How wrong she was.

"Now, we're going to put this into action as quickly as possible," Mitchell promised. "You need to tell me about Owen, I know a lot from what I've seen but obviously you're a lot closer to him, you'll be seeing a lot more."

They ended up spending over an hour talking about it, slowly they began to form some sort of plan. It was a loose plan, there was a lot of ways that it could go wrong, but it was still two against one, even if one of the two was a ghost. Owen was going to be killed. They were both determined to make sure that happened. It was what he deserved. Annie was going to make sure Owen was distracted in any way that she could and then Mitchell would come. It wasn't in any way a good plan, but the truth was they were both in too much of a rush to care.

—

It was only a few days later again, less than a week after Annie and Mitchell's first meeting, when Annie was acting like the perfect little slut for Owen. She was dressed in tight, short close for his pleasure, flirting with him, leaning in close to him, teasing him. Everything about it made her feel sick, disgusted at herself, but the thought that Mitchell was going to be there. The thought that Owen was going to be killed before this day was out was enough to make her continue on with it. She gave Owen a gentle kiss, before pulling away. Mitchell was there now. She smiled at Owen, winking slightly, suggestively at him. Then she suddenly stopped, looking confused, looking passed Owen.

"O-Owen," she forced a stutter into her voice and in all honesty it wasn't hard to do, she was so worried about how this was going to turn out after all. She pointed shakily behind her, forcing the confused expression to stay on her face.

Confused, and somewhat annoyed by the way Annie just stopped, Owen turned around. Mitchell's expression quickly turned into a smirk. "Owen, long time no see," he said, his voice dripping with bitterness and anger. He moved his hand from behind his back, revealing the stake and Owen – despite his scoff and attempts to – had no time to move before Mitchell dug it right into his heart. "I told you the next time you saw me you would die and you didn't believe me." He smirked.

Owen began to burn up. Annie stepped around him to stand beside Mitchell. She didn't know what she had expected to be feeling, happiness, freedom? That what she thought she should be feeling, but in all honesty there was nothing. She couldn't feel anything. She felt empty. Nothing good or bad ran through her as she saw him burning. His body seemed to tense, it turned an ash grey colour before dissolving into nothing more than a pile of dust on the floor. Any looked down at it, at what had been her creator, her abuser and in some messed her way her partner and still she felt nothing.

The emotions came later though. After Annie had changed and Mitchell had taken her to the abandoned flat he was staying in, the emotions hit Annie like a ton of bricks. She wasn't sure how to make sense of them. She was happy, so glad to be free of him, so glad that he was gone. And yet she was sad, upset that he was dead, she had spent practically every minute with him, she had been brainwashed by him into thinking and feeling certain things and now, she felt she was going to miss him. She was certain that was wrong but it was how it was for her. She didn't express it to Mitchell. Not yet, she was going to need him, there was nowhere she was going to survive on her own just yet. But the difference, she realised straight away, between Owen and Mitchell, was the Owen was controlling her and making her his, while Mitchell was helping her, shaping her back into who she wanted to be. As it should be."


End file.
